Pick of Nick
by Alexisagirl
Summary: A humorous one-shot written by DelilahUnknown for my story Son of Loki. Takes place some time after Loki has left. Thor is extremely excited. The god had just learnt about a new Midgardian 'festivity' called Pick of Nick and he is now eager to drag Leif and the other Avengers along for this grand event. What is the Pick of Nick? And what shenanigans will Leif get into now?


_PLEASE NOTE: This is a fan fiction for my fan fiction, Son of Loki, written by Delilah Unknown. I love it and she has given me the permission to post it under my account so that other readers of my story can read this as well. I had only helped with the proof reading and I DO NOT own anything in this story other than Leif. The story idea and writing style belongs to Delilah Unknown. :)_

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**Pick of The Nick**

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Today had just not been a very good day, and it was barely past 9 a.m. I was resting on the breakfast table, unwilling to wake up like when I was in my bed about ten minutes ago. Thor had busted my door wide open with a bright smile; and I had given a…startled small yelp, and he quickly dragged me out of bed saying I should stop my girlish screams.

Let me state right now: I do NOT scream like a girl. I merely gave a surprised yelp at having someone break the hinges of my locked door.

Of course, I had tried to resist but my uncle made sure to lock me in his grip and set me at the table in the Stark residence. The moment he let go, my head instantly went for the solid wood surface and I went back to my dreams. My father had not contacted me for some time through our visionary dreams as of late and it had me worried. I slept in longer than usual and went to bed earlier because of this, which seems to have made me more sluggish from resting too much. I wasn't aware my uncle was calling upon me until he nearly shouted.

"Leif! Leif, please arise from your slumber. I, Jane, and Pepper have worked hard for this." He said and I could hear the disappointment and see the pout on his face without actually having to glance up and look. Groaning, I craned my neck up slightly and opened my eyes to gaze at him in annoyance. I glanced around for a moment to see the other Avengers along with Jane and Pepper standing side by side next to Thor, smiling brightly.

"Thor, please tell us you didn't make breakfast again. My stomach won't be able to make it from another Pop-tart smoothie fiasco…" Clint pressed his hand to his mouth as if trying to hold back something and then patted his stomach. I wouldn't blame him. He had thought it was an ordinary smoothie and trying to please the Asgardian, he drank it. He was sick for a good couple of hours.

Natasha gave him a sympathetic look. We all did. He was the first victim of the "Breakfast Day to Hopefully Forget". Needless to say, everyone had issues digesting the food. If you could call it food. Thor still did not quite grasp the concept that his food was not edible and hearing this again, he chuckled.

"No, not today but I do plan to try again in the future." Everyone grimaced and then turned as we heard Tony walk in then slowly back out from hearing the word "breakfast" and "Thor".

"Hell no. I am not going near the kitchen with him in there. If you guys are not the death of me, you'll surely cause me to file bankruptcy from all the repairs, cleaning, and refurnishing in this house! What is broken this time?" Pepper walked over towards him and kissed his cheek, patting his back in an effort to comfort him and whispering in his ear to calm down and wait. For a moment I thought I saw Stark's cheeks start to redden but my attention swiftly went back to my uncle as he continued talking.

"Nothing is broken, my friend! The food and strange equipment will be prepared and used by Jane and Pepper today. I was not allowed to make anything, but tomorrow will be different. Now, please listen! I heard about this Midgardian event called the "pick of nick" and I thought we should celebrate this Nick and of his chosen acceptance that is held in many different parks around the area! They can happen at any time of any day as well, so I thought why not today!"

"He was watching TV last night and discovered about how we have picnics on Earth, basically. By the way dear, there is no Nick or celebration. We just pack up food and play games during the day, relaxing." Jane replied, smiling up at his slightly embarrassed face. Dear Uncle was still grasping Earth concepts and it had bothered him being in a alien world with no knowledge of it. He was learning, but there were many things to learn about. Jane squeezed his hand for reassurance and then turned her head to face the rest of the group.

"How about it, every one? A relaxing picnic in the park?"

The group exchanged glances. Tony started shaking his head and opening his mouth to reply with a snarky comment about the picnic until Pepper pressed her finger to her mouth to motion for him to stay silent.

"It won't be so bad. We can have some alone time walking around the park." She told him and I could swear that he must have had a dirty thought that she did not mean to imply because he grinned like an idiot and stated aloud he was going to go and change real quick. Pepper rolled her eyes and went back to the counters on the kitchen and worked with Jane to start making the meals for the group, asking who else would be joining.

Natasha and Clint were exchanging words with their eyes, and I could tell Clint was begging her to go. She frowned at him and then nodded to agree with him on attending the small event. Hiding his enthusiasm Clint said that they would be leaving to get ready. The two assassins walked away to their respective rooms in the tower. All eyes went to Steve and Bruce. I forgot they were there really. Ironically Bruce has a usually quiet, calm aura about him most of the time. He gave a gentle smile and said the fresh air would do everyone good before leaving like the others to change for a comfortable day. Steve said "why not?" and left with him.

I watched them go and stared at the hallways that led to the different rooms before hearing someone go "ahem". Lazily I looked up at Thor whose face was suddenly beside my own, making me feel uncomfortable. It took me a moment to realize I was the only one who did not respond with my yes or no. That's what happens when you wake up too suddenly and early; my brain waves were probably synchronizing with the slow pace of my uncle's at this point. Sighing, I backed up my chair and left to go to my room.

"I'll go, I'll go."

I heard Thor behind me shout with joy and started asking the ladies if he could help in anyway, the responses coming fast and swift. "No". I chuckled at this and went to change in my room.

It was around noon when we were all out at Central Park. Thor was astounded with the simplicity of the picnic and that they were not huge events. Pepper and Jane laid out a large picnic blanket for everyone and three baskets worth of food. Probably due to the fact that my uncle could eat a whole basket of food and still be hungry within minutes. After eating some snacks before we all settled down for lunch in about an hour, everyone went off in their own directions.

Thor, Clint, Steve, and Natasha left to play "extreme" Frisbee. Clint begged her to come along since Bruce had denied going, afraid that the Other Guy may come out if he got mad during the game, and then got her to agree by promising something in return. I had no idea what it was, but I smirked lightly at the two assassins. Eventually they would be together, if not already hiding it. It was certainly extreme Frisbee with Thor throwing it so far and high, Clint actually cheating and using his bows to try and change the direction of the flying object, Steve desperately trying his hardest to catch the Frisbee due to it being his shield and poor Natasha playing referee at this point. Many other people at the park watched the three in amazement and to my amusement, horror.

As promised by Pepper, she and Tony left to walk around the park. Honestly, I don't know what she saw in him and one day I will be bound to ask, but I knew he wasn't too bad of a guy. Not that I was going to say it aloud anyway. He was probably happy that he got to relax and wouldn't have to worry about the others or I until later when he ate his sandwich.

Grinning to myself, I glanced over at the third basket knowing I had to wait until later for my prank to come into action. Too much peace wasn't good for the soul. Turning my eyes away from the baskets I looked at Jane and Bruce exchanging conversation about the books they had in their hands, both leaning up against the trees we were under. Bruce needed to socialize more although Jane was sure to be kidnapped soon by Thor after he was done playing.

Everyone was doing their own things and I was sitting here; frowning, looking down at the laces on my Converse and starting to pull at them. This was boring. Plus I couldn't think of any tricks to pull. My thoughts wandered back to Father and how he was.

It had been almost a week since our last contact in my dreams and it worried me a little. I didn't know where he was or when he would return. He had left saying he still needed time when he was last on Earth. No one expected him to turn over a new leaf quickly or seek redemption; time was a necessity for him to be alone with his thoughts. Besides my father, the Avengers did bring me amusement on most days and I had heard that I may be recruited soon for the team if I continued to get stronger and more experienced on the field.

It was childish to think, but I could NOT wait for my codename. Just thinking about fighting alongside my friends with permission for once (as most of the time I wasn't allowed on missions, but went anyway) and being part of the team officially was great enough to make me grin. The kid who was known as nothing but a trickster being an Avenger; it was amazing to think about it. Not too long ago I was just sitting in school as an outsider living like a pretender for the insiders.

Pushed out of my thoughts was Bruce standing in front of me, crouched down with his book in his hands.

"Are you okay, Leif? You've been grinning quietly for the past few minutes and if you've gone insane on us, well-" He tilted his head smiling, attempting to make a joke at my sanity. I continued grinning and eyed him, trying to look insane and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Stuck in my thoughts, that's all." I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back on the tree.

"I understand." He replied. "You just haven't been very active the past couple of days and I was worried today you would be tricking innocent tourists. Now I'm worried why you're not torturing them."

Chuckling at him I asked, "Would you prefer if I went about causing trouble for others?"

"Oh no, you never heard me saying that." He shook his finger at me and continued "I was just making sure you're okay. At least go take a walk. Besides those three," he pointed over at the three Avengers playing Frisbee. "There are many more entertaining things around here. Musicians, magicians, all kinds of stuff. Go walk around at least."

And here I was, worried about him not being social enough. If Bruce was worried about me not being out more, something was wrong. He sat back down on his spot next to Jane who was in depth with her book and he soon followed her. I shrugged and got up, brushing off any insects or dirt that may have got on the blanket and headed for the concrete walkway.

For the time I walked around, I caused a magician's trick to be all the more interesting when his scarves started pulling themselves out of his sleeve and flying off into the breeze, a fortune teller's crystal ball to crack open, and a terrible guitarist's stings to break the moment he touched them. Each time I laughed when I was a distance away, enjoying the looks on their faces.

A couple passed me, a woman wearing a very short dress and trying way too hard to impress her other half and I decided to show her the error of her ways with an alarming strong breeze passing by to make her dress go up, much to her embarrassment. Really, how could she be embarrassed when you could pretty much see everything to begin with? I walked past the self-conscious two, grinning away.

"No! Oh come on, someone help!" I heard a random voice of a girl behind me and wondered if it was the previous woman. I turned on my heel to see another girl running by me quickly. Looking ahead, I noticed that she was chasing after a piece of paper that was flying by in the wind I had caused.

"Oops." I muttered then shrugged and with a wave of my fingers, the wind halted quickly. Father and my lessons had helped me to control my power and my magic to do things that I did not even know I could attempt long ago. The paper crumpled onto the ground and the girl grabbed it quickly, looking rather sad. A tinge of guilt panged at my heart which I tried to ignore and I walked over to the girl as she started shouting past me.

"I'm so sorry! It's a little crumpled, b-but I can start over!"

Glancing behind me, I saw Pepper and Tony standing at small table area with a board sign next to it. Pepper was waving her hand dismissively as if to say it's nothing and Tony looked annoyed. Then his expression turned to horror after seeing me not too far away. He began pulling away an alarmed Pepper fairly quickly before the girl next to me could catch up to them. Tony and Pepper were gone before she arrived to her area, again running and now breathing hard, yelling "Wait! Come back!"

Normally I wouldn't care about what just happened, but whatever it was, it was my fault because of the wind. The girl sat down on a bench, crunching the piece of paper into a ball by the time I walked briskly towards her. I looked at the board and read aloud "Portraits for ten dollars, pencil. That's a little steep isn't it?" I looked down at her, shoving my hands into my denim pockets. She glanced up at me then back down at the crumpled paper.

"I have bills to pay too, you know. That's actually pretty cheap compared to some artists."

"The good ones?" I snickered and she casted me a glance that said she would murder me. "I'm sorry." I said, taking a step back before she could jam her pencil into my eye socket.

"It's fine. It's not like you caused the wind to blare up like that. I wasn't paying attention and lost paying customers for it."

Oops, I did cause it.

"Well, don't worry about it. The only one worth drawing was that lady. The old looking man would have been torturous to draw with all the wrinkles-" I went on and on about Tony's old man features, making some giggles come out of her.

"Yeah, I guess. He was kind of a jerk too. I know he's an Avenger and all, but I wanted to comment so badly about how his light thing made him look like he was headed off to a serious rave."

Something rare, I laughed at this. How come I never even thought of that? I sat down on the chair that was in front of the small table that she was behind, sitting on the bench.

"Yeah or how his suit needs a serious oil change." I commented. "Or a change of heart, I think his may have shriveled and died some time ago."

She chuckled and grabbed her sketchbook that was lying on the bench and the pencil that lay on the ground.

"That's a little cold; he did help defend the city. I respect him as a hero, but as a person ehhh…" she trailed off, opening her sketchbook and staring down at the blank page. In return for making her lose a "valued" customer, an idea came to me.

"Hey, I'll pay you to draw a portrait of me. Your pencil may not be able to handle this-" I grinned smugly. "But, I'm sure a talented little lady such as yourself can handle it."

There was that look again. Her eyebrow went up and the side of her mouth turned down.

"I'm not sure; I wouldn't want to waste valuable paper on someone with such big dimensions that would take up all the space…say like the nose?" That part that was turning down went up as she began smirking at me. My hand wanted to fly up to my nose and feel for some reason to see if she was right, but if I did, she would win. I continued grinning at her and leaned back into the chair, waiting. She rolled her eyes and started sketching.

I watched her move the pencil back and forth and started taking notice of her while I waited. As she leaned down towards the paper, her brunette curly locks cascaded down her shoulder in a side ponytail and barely on the sketchbook itself.

"So my name is Leif."

"Interesting name."

"Mind telling me yours?"

She sighed and looked up at me, her facial expression bored and slightly annoyed. However, I could read into her eyes, a lovely shade of light blue, looking beyond the frames that tried to cover them from me and I knew mischief when I saw it.

"I'm not sure if I want a stalker, ask me tomorrow though." She said blandly and looked down to continue sketching.

"What makes you think I'm a stalker?" I smirked at her and she tried not to smile.

"Not sure, but I don't like playing the 'I'll give you some truth about myself and then lie about the rest' game." She shrugged.

She doesn't want lies and the games? I can do my best, I guess...

"Well, I'm Leif as I had said before. I'm an Avenger in training you could say, the son of Loki. You know, the God of Lies and Mischief. My uncle is the Avenger Thor. I prank and torture Tony Stark every day of my life. I have some cool powers that allow me to control energy waves, I can use magic. So it was my fault because of the wind. I was trying to mess with some people, sorry about that. I enjoy going out to places, but also staying to watch movies. I'm very close to my father, and I hope he comes to live on Earth soon. You?"

Maybe sometime around announcing my father's name or that I have powers did she stop sketching and stared at me, eyes wide.

"My dear, you did say you didn't want to play the lying game. I thought I would oblige?" Still smirking at her, her expressions went from surprise, to doubt, and then surprisingly to myself a smirk that matched mine.

"I'm Diana. I'm an only child; I recently graduated from high school. My father works long hours so I'm usually alone and I get lonely easy. I love to tell dark jokes and most of the time my jokes insult someone near me or myself. I'm an artist as you can see. Anything I draw can come to life, including a clone of you if I drew your entire body front and back." She stuck her tongue out at me and continued working on the portrait. I chuckled at her and tilted my head to the side. I couldn't tell if she was being snarky with me or not and it had me slightly worried.

"You wanna go out some time, Diana?"

"Not really, Leif."

"But I bet we could become good friends."

"I have a feeling friendship is not the aim here." She said dully, putting the pencil down the table before reaching into a bag that was under the bench and pulling out a tin of what seemed to be colored pencils.

My cheeks were aching from smirking for so long, but I couldn't help it. Most girls I've flirted with would be giggling by now and trying to get to know each other more so we could go out. Even Darcy caved in faster than Diana. I still didn't know enough about her to see her as a friend, but her honesty and wit was fun to play with. Not often did I have an opponent like this and Tony Stark did not count as a worthy opponent.

"Are you weighing the pros and cons, Di? If pro is opposite of con, what's the opposite of progress? How can we work on this relationship, darling?" My smirk raised more on my right side as I mocked her with a false relationship.

Holding a green colored pencil, she stopped coloring in what I assume would be my eyes, and looked up at me in alarm. I smugly looked back at her knowing that the relationship comment must have gotten to her.

"Did you call me…Di?" She asked incredulously and my smug look was wiped off my face. Did she ignore everything else?

"Uh, yeah. I did." It was too late to put my façade back on my expression before she grinned at me.

"You focus too much on playing the game, Leify." She shook her head and grabbed her pencil again, scribbling something down on the drawing.

"Leify?" I asked in disbelief as she handed me the drawing turned the other way so I could not see my portrait. Her shoulders shrugged and she began packing up her things very quickly.

"Call me something weird and I'll call you something even weirder. Anyway, you may look at your portrait the moment I'm gone." I stood up so she could grab the chair and fold it along with the table, a backpack on her shoulders.

"Why? And do you want some help? Don't you want your money?" I asked her, watching her make her leave with such a load.

"I'm fine." She said as she began to walk hastily away and called out to me as she walked. "I don't need the money, consider it a gift, 'friend'." She said the word jokingly. "Plus I don't want to hear you complain about your big nose!"

She walked across the street and before I could run to catch up with her. I turned the picture over to see if she really drew my nose big. I don't know how long I was standing there gazing at the drawing, but before I knew it Thor was behind me tapping my shoulder.

"Nephew, we are about to begin the picnic feasting."

"In a minute, Uncle."

He stood behind me a moment longer before heading back to the others. I smiled at the drawing and held it close so it wouldn't be blown away and walked to the picnic area to hang out with the others.

I sat down between Clint and Steve, rolling up the drawing and placing it in my lap so it wouldn't go anywhere. We were about to start eating the sandwiches, until we noticed that Thor was missing. Before long, we heard a thunderous voice near the water fountains.

"These menacing stone creatures think they can trick The Mighty Thor by placing the fountain of cold water in their mouths? I think not!" He was about to punch the sculpted lion statues and I quickly jumped up to stop him.

"No, Uncle! They're not real!"

Clint looked down at the rolled up paper that Leif had left behind while attending to the shouting God of Thunder. Both he and Steve exchanged glances before the Hawk took the paper and unrolled it. He stared in amazement at the detail of the drawing and Steve whistled.

"That's beautiful. Did someone draw this for Leif?" Steve asked leaning over before taking a bite of his sand which.

The drawing was the outside of a café that was near the Stark tower with two people sitting at a table. One was Leif. It was unmistakable from his black hair that was combed off to the side, the emerald eyes shining from behind his bangs and of course the light glowing purple gem under a black shirt that he wore in the drawing. Plus he had his signature smirk on like he had just said something witty or was about to. The other was a girl sitting across from him with curly dark chocolate hair cascading down her shoulders, complimenting her light skin. She was leaned back comfortably in the chair, pressing her glasses up the rim of her nose while grinning at whatever Leif must have said. Her eyes lit up like she was so happy but contained secrets behind the icy eyes. The coloring and detail of the drawing was beyond beautiful. Below at the bottom of the paper said "Di to Leify" and contained the address, and a time plus the date for tomorrow.

Hearing Thor coming back to the picnic area with a disapproving Leif talking about something, Clint quickly rolled up the piece of paper and tossed it back to where Leif had left it last. He then grabbed a sandwich and dug in so he would not look suspicious, ignoring the burning looks Natasha was giving him.

"Hey guys. Do you mind if I leave around noon tomorrow? I have something to attend to." Leif asked as he took his sandwich.

"Kid, as long as you are not in my house, I'm fine." Stark retorted.

Clint thought about the drawing and figured the girl in it must be his date and the artist. Something bugged him though about the drawing. It took him a moment to figure it out what it was, and then it clicked.

The girl must have drawn Leif's nose too big.

~The End~

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_SO how was it? I personally love her OC Diana a lot. And I plan on including Di in my sequel as well! :D I have discussed this with Delilah Unkwon and she has given me permission to use her OC as well. Di can be a really tough cookie!_

_Not that Darcy will be excluded of course... but the sequel is supposed to take place 5 years after the original story and I don't know how much of a Prince Charming you guys might think Leif to be, but I believe he certainly isn't the type to remain faithful to just one girl for so long. _

_Since Leif is grown up by then, I think it is reasonable for him to get into a bit of girl trouble... and with both Darcy and Diana, he will have bitten off a whole lot more than he can chew. ;D All the possibilities and ideas are in my head now... and I am really excited about it, heh heh._

_Once again, all of the credit for this story goes to Delilah... I don't think I even merit 12%... LOL_

_Here is also a bit of fan art Delilah Unknown has done (remove brackets and close spaces) :_

_ http (:) / delilah (-) unknown . deviantart . com (/) art (/) Di-and-Leify-308266346_

_Again... do review! Delilah and I would both love to know what you think! :)_


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